Happy Presidents Day

We’ve arrived at another Presidents Day that’s set aside to honor a few great presidents’ birthdays and its in the middle of another contentious running debate about whether or not we have a worthy president. Lately, a group known as birthers has even been working overtime to try and prove that our current president, Obama, wasn’t born in Hawaii but some far and distant foreign land and therefore was never eligible for the post.

Before Obama there was the previous officeholder, George W. Bush who was serving out two terms and back then there was a lot of mumbling and speculation about his general intelligence. Some wondered if he had the grey matter to pull off what needed to be done. Maybe he was just an eight-year-long front for a cabal that pulled the strings in his shadow.

It’s like they thought he was a human curtain for the real wizards.

Strangely, all of that behavior is considered patriotic in some circles. Note that the definition of patriotism changes for each crowd depending on who is in office and their particular party affiliation.

However, if any other country were to throw as many pointless stones at the character of the American President we’d all be up in arms just like when Congress changed the names of French fries to freedom fries in the congressional dining room after a snub from the French. These kinds of things matter to us.

Perhaps the reason we don’t care so much anymore about all the ballyhoo and falderal surrounding the fitness of our sitting presidents because it’s been going on so long most of us don’t really notice anymore and besides, we’re a little busy taking care of our own business.

Or maybe it’s that old rule that’s used as a variance for a lot of things we really want to get off our chest that says we can insult our own kind but everybody else better watch our or they’ll hear about it. However, that’s still an insult but now it’s about something that really ought to matter more.

There was a time when everyone took to heart the notion that once someone was elected President of the United States they represented the entire population of the US. Not just all of their party or even all of the voters but every citizen. We put down the rock of party affiliation for awhile at least for that office and at least till it got closer to election time and we supported their right to be there.

Sure, there were protests about policy, just ask anyone who was around during the Nixon era and a lot of what happened to Clinton was brought on by the man and his sexual escapades.

But right around that era politics was also starting to take on a darker tone as rumor and innuendo crept in and became another tool of entitlement. It was no longer enough to point out someone’s dismal voting record or how much pork they had gotten for their district.

Now, we wanted something personal and if it was vague and never had any proof that was still okay as long as it hinted at an inability to serve at all. The rancor and vilification didn’t stop with the election for even a brief honeymoon.

Bush was portrayed by an actor on Saturday Night Live as an overgrown child sitting in a children’s desk immediately after the election and the birthers have never stopped chattering. But once Bush or Obama was elected it was now the American President that everyone was saying was incompetent and they were shouting it to the rest of the world. Again, notice the difference between criticizing the policy decisions and ranting about our President’s fitness for duty.

This Presidents Day let’s all take a break from trying to find fault with our President and instead take a moment to feel a little gratitude for a system that lets us vote our conscience every four years and hand over the power in a peaceful, orderly system to whomever the majority has picked. That’s especially poignant given what’s happening in the streets of several Middle East countries right now.

Democracy may not be perfect and thanks to some hanging chads it may not always work as smoothly as we’d like but for the most part the idea works really well. There is not another country that is in existence now or has ever been that can point to such a long line of greatly admired leaders such as Washington, Lincoln or even Truman who were elected into office and never tried to stay longer than their official term.

There’s only one America that so many others try to reach while well over 300 million of us are blessed to call this home. Celebrate the day everyone and have a little cherry pie with friends and family.

[avatar user="cbriese" size="thumbnail" align="left"] Chuck Briese has been a resident of South Montgomery County since 1988. He and his lovely and patient wife, Leslie, have six sons, with only one left to finish high school. Chuck has been a Cub Scout leader, a Little League baseball coach, a church youth leader, and a general troublemaker over the course of the past 25 years. He is obsessed with his lawn, and likes restaurants that serve food that fills up the plate. He has a tendency to tilt at windmills, which may explain why he started Oak Ridge Now.